


Rise Again

by YourLocalPriestess



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Character Death, F/F, Self-Hatred, and some definite mental illness stuff going on, some descriptions of death??, sufferingggg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 17:06:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11787588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourLocalPriestess/pseuds/YourLocalPriestess
Summary: Sloane Kelly is dead, and Cass is more lost than she's ever been.





	Rise Again

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Mental Health breakdown and character death/death depiction
> 
> For Day 12 of Fanfiction Month! Prompt: Major Character Death. And, well, clue right there.

The basement of the Outcast base was cold. That was probably why they had a morgue down there. 

It wasn’t hard for Cass to lie past the guard at the door. She was already a Collective agent. Already accepted in their circles. “I just want to see that bitch myself.” The word burned her tongue when she said it, but she had to sell this this sob story. She had to get in there. “She killed my family. I want to see her  _ dead _ .” The guard had sneered at her, something between disgust and pity in his eyes, as he told her she only had five minutes.

The door closed with a thud, leaving her alone in the dimly lit room. A single light illuminated a body covered in a sheet on the only table in the room. As her eyes fell onto the silhouette, she felt what little control she’d been using shatter at her feet. Her hands shook and her legs locked up. What happened to the air? Why couldn’t she breathe? What was that incessant pounding in her ears? Fuck fuck  _ fuck _ .

_ Tick tick tick _ .  _ You don’t have time for this, crazy. Move. _

Tears trickled down her cheeks. Her mouth still hung open in some sort of silent scream as she warred with herself, willed her body to move, fought to regain her control.

_ You sure you want control? Conrad always had control, didn’t he? _

She crushed the voice into silence and took a step forward. She wasn’t her brother. Her mind was her own. She was in control. She just…needed to see. What if this was all a lie? What if Sloane was only locked away somewhere? Then she could save her. Then Sloane would love her again. Then they could be together again. Like they were  _ meant _ to be.

Cass placed delicate fingers on the top of the sheet, just above the head. The sheet didn’t feel like she expected – coarse and cold – but instead it just felt…unextraordinary, which was somehow worse. Only harsh things should hold the hard truths. Too many delicate things wrapped around poison.

She lifted the sheet far enough to reveal the face before she lost her grip and let the sheet slip through her fingers.

It couldn’t be real. Her dark skin was mottled and pale and lifeless. The familiar scar that Cass had treated was in the same place on her cheek, the same shape as she remembered. Her lips were the same. Her eyebrows were the same. Her cheeks were the same. Everything was the  _ same _ .

Except she was dead.

_ Dead and gone. Now you’re all alone. _

Cass didn’t need to see more. She pulled the sheet back over the lifeless face of the woman she loved. What was there to do now? The voice in her head was right. She was alone and powerless and defenseless in a world of disgusting, vile killers. Sloane was the only light in this world, in this  _ universe _ , and they’d crushed it, plunging them all into the depths.

Cass braced her hands against the table and let her shoulders slump as a sob ripped through her chest. Her tears splashed against the sheet, leaving two damp spots that transformed into steel, dark points as they clung to the metal slab of a table.

_ This is who you are now. A weakling who just gives up and cries. No wonder Sloane left you. You’re useless. _

“Shut up shut up shut  _ up _ !” she shouted, smacking herself in the head as another sob tore through her. It was too hard to breathe, to think. Every rattling breath was a gasp. It was impossible to make the voice  _ stop _ .

“Everything alright in there?” the guard called out, muffled, through the iron door.

“Yeah,” she managed. “Yeah, one minute, I’ll be right out.”

She licked her lips and looked around. Sloane was dead and gone and Cass was alone, but there had to be something of hers here, something she could take and keep. She had to have something.  _ Something _ . Anything to help her hold onto the good memories, that could help her keep out the bad that kept seeping into her bones with every waking moment.

_ Look at you, scrounging through her belongings like a rat _ . She ignored the voice and continued to look through the drawers and read the tags that labelled bags of belongings.  _ What a piece of shit. You’re disgusting. Filth. Crazy. Just like your mother. The Alliance was right about you after all _ .

Then she found it and the voice went quiet. She pulled out the bag labelled  _ Kelly, Sloane _ , and set it on the floor while she unzipped it. As she sorted through the bag, she realized the only thing inside was Sloane’s armor.

That was all that was left of her Queen of Kadara.

Slowly, Cass lifted the chest piece from the bag. A hole was blasted in the center, right above the heart, leaving crude and jagged edges curling inward. Cass traced a finger along the edge. How had the Charlatan been able to do this?  Was she able to fight back? How long had Sloane suffered before her heart pumped too much of her blood into the dirt? Had the Charlatan stood over and watched as she gasped for her last breaths?

Her fingers curled around the edge of the armor. Sloane deserved better. The people of Kadara deserved better. The Charlatan had robbed them of their peace and security. The Charlatan had taken everything.

_ So what are you gonna do about it, huh? _

Cass stood and began stripping down out of her own armor until she was as naked as Sloane’s body.

_ What the fuck are you doing? _

A smile twisted her features, her brokenness from before already forgotten, hidden away. She picked up the bottoms of the undersuit and slipped them on with a smirk.

_ I’m going to give it back to them, and kill whoever stands in my way. _

**Author's Note:**

> Many and a million thanks to joufancyhuh for beta-ing this for me and fixing it I loVE YOU <3
> 
> Thank YOU a million for reading these bbys. I love them so much and it means the world to me that you read it at all. Any comments/kudos/what-have-yous are appreciated ^_^


End file.
